Moving Beyond Social Media Awareness
April 9, 2013 | By Chris Case | One Comment
I love the idea. There is injustice in the world. People need to know about this. But then what?
Remember Kony 2012? Last I checked, the YouTube video had close to 100 million views. I remember every day logging into my Facebook and someone else had posted something about how we need to stop this guy, how big of an injustice it is, etc. Great! I agree. But it is 2013. Kony is still at large kidnapping children and enlisting them into his army, and the US has more or less forgotten about it. Remember Darfur? How about Haiti? Guess what, these areas are still either war ravaged or poverty stricken. But, we sure were aware that they were in need for a while.
Getting young people, who are notoriously reluctant to engage, to pay attention to something not pop-culture based, is quite a feat. Getting them to put aside their micro-attention spans and keep paying attention past the next “viral” thing is an even bigger challenge. Getting them out from behind their “devices” and actually taking action (as opposed to checking out YouTube) has proven next to impossible.
Over the past few months (coming out of Passion 2013), my Facebook has seen a few days where the End It movement has taken up a few spots on my feed. Love the idea. There is injustice in the world taking place. 27 million people are slaves today through the use of child labor, sex trafficking, bondage, and work without wages through coercion. Something must be done. But what? My worry is that awareness, particularly social media trending awareness, has done very little in the past when it comes to young people here in America.
We are a culture who feels like we are doing something by clicking “share.” A culture who feels like success is measured by YouTube views and website hits. Even as I write this, the success of this blog will be ‘how many people who read this?’ We have got to move beyond awareness.
Jesus didn’t call his disciples to handle brokenness from afar. “Peter, make sure people know that there is brokenness, and have other people get involved in fixing it.” Jesus told his followers to show the Kingdom in their actions, not just point out everywhere the Kingdom is not.
How about this? Have a banquet (Luke 14). Invite all the poor and broken people. Sit down and have a meal with them. Love them, get to know them. Maybe lost and forgotten girls in this world will know they are neither lost nor forgotten.
How about this? Make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I’ve commanded (Matthew 28). Show the kingdom to them, tell them about it. Maybe broken and sinful men will have the power to overcome sin because of their faith in Christ. He is the only hope for transformation and conquering sin.
How about this? Go to all nations. Be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. Lose your life, sacrifice everything, and you might find life. How will they ever believe if they haven’t heard? How will we expect life change (with leads to culture change) without the Spirit changing lives?
Do something. Jesus never said ‘donate now.’ Jesus never said ‘just raise awareness.’ Jesus said go.
